Brits pull together for Kiwi

Four British riders on the JLT Condor team put themselves through absolute hell to give Kiwi Alex Frame the chance at a stage victory on stage three of the New Zealand Cycle Classic in Martinborough yesterday.

The 23-year-old repaid their effort with a devastating sprint finish to claim the win.

Frame, who referred to himself as JLT’S ‘‘token New Zealander’’ at the post-race presentation, said the credit had to go to his team-mates Steve Lampier, Robert Mccarty, Jonathan Mould and Ed Clancy.

They put the hammer down with four laps to go of the 8km circuit around Martinborough, stringing out the peloton as they hauled in a four-man breakaway with about 11⁄2 laps to go.

‘‘It’s only teams of five, so because they were riding for me there were only four of them trying to catch a break of four. They just committed on chasing it down and noone really gave us a hand because we’re a bit of a sprint team. It was awesome to see the guys do it.’’

Frame was sitting about 10 riders back coming into the final left-hand bend, but found room down the right hand side in the final straight to blast away for what was a relatively comfortable win over Sapura’s Mohammad Abd Halil and Oliver’s Real Food’s Sean Whitfield.

New Zealand National Team’s James Oram finished comfortably in the bunch to stay in the leader’s yellow jersey, while the sprint jersey changed hands to Whitfield’s team-mate Ryan Thomas.

Thomas won all three sprints while in the early break with James Fouche (Mobius Future), Jordan Kerby and Nick Woods (both Cobra9), which had a lead of more than three minutes early in the eight laps around Martinborough.

Oram and his New Zealand team had to close down many attacks early in the stage before they allowed those four to get away and said he expected more of the same in today’s ‘Five Towns’ stage, which also finishes in Martinborough.

‘‘We’re expecting a lot of attacks. There are a few guys out there who could take the jersey away, but we’ve got a really good team so I’m confident.’’

With rain and wind predicted for the fourth stage, Frame said it could be anybody’s race.